Thank you, Pastor Rogers. Well, it's a blessing to be in church this morning, amen? Praise the Lord. That's a better response than I get at some churches. I'll say something like that and the response I have like two people say amen or yes. So anyway, praise the Lord. We were here back in January at the very beginning of the year. We just dropped in on the way through. Pastor let us stop and And we have been, I can't remember, 30-something thousand miles. We're taking our first furlough, if you want to call it that, in 20 years, our 20th year, reaching the military and military prisons. So they bulldozed my facility and they're rebuilding it. So we've been traveling this year. In the middle of COVID, we thought it'd be a great time. It's been interesting. But anyway, make sure and get back there to see our display and get a prayer card. We've got two daughters, but they're not on the card anymore. They're grown and gone. And we are grandparents. Those who said I'm young, thank you very much. My daughter just tells me how old I am now. But anyway, make sure and get one of these and pray for us. We certainly need your prayers. You might have noticed the new transient living in your parking lot out back. That's us. That is our home. We sold our home in the middle of all this. We didn't want to try to rent with a moratorium on evictions and all that. So we sold that, moved into a trailer, and we've been traveling. Anyway, it's been interesting. But anyway, it's a blessing to be here. Thanks for Pastor Rogers and the opportunity to be here. And I pray that Sunday School be a blessing to you, be a help to you. So I just found out I was doing Sunday school, I don't know, just a few minutes ago. So I told the preacher, I said, well, I've always got something ready if you'd like me to do something. Anyway, so I was thinking, how many of you have felt, you don't have to raise your hand, but how many of you have felt powerless? At least we have one, you know, we have one. I said you didn't have to, so I shouldn't make you feel bad. I have felt powerless. You know, there's nothing really worse than feeling powerless. Of course, in the military prisons, all my guys, I say guys because it's primarily men, there are some women there. My wife does go with me there to the military facility. They're all active duty. But a lot of times they'll tell you, sir, I feel powerless. I feel hopeless. I feel like I have nothing. And, you know, as we've been traveling this last year, I've noticed that there are Not just pastors, but deacons, and church members, and missionaries I've encountered, and ourselves. We have felt, Lord, we can't do anything. We are, in this regards, or in this situation, we are powerless. We can't do anything. You know, and I started thinking about those things, but then, you know, then I'm reminded of Scripture, and hopefully, you know, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against God. We know the Word, that God will bring things to our mind. And then He reminded me, You can do nothing of yourselves. He's like, you're right. You are powerless. You can't do anything. I'm like, well, thanks, Lord. He goes, well, hold on. But you know the rest of the story, don't you? Because in Christ, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. So even though we are powerless to do really nothing, At the same time, I know it's an oxymoron, it's a paradox, would probably be a better word, but we can do anything. And so those times where you feel powerless, we really, God has given us great power. And so this morning, I want to talk about that just for the next few minutes. I don't know, what time does Sunday school get over, preacher? Half hour, okay. So for the next little bit, I just want to talk about the power of God. Some of you just said that you felt powerless. Have you ever felt empowered? Have you ever felt like the Lord just gave you an extra something to get through something where you had been and you couldn't get through it, but you did? So there are times we feel powerless, but there are other times when we feel truly supernatural power. Man, I can't believe that God got me through that. And so we've all experienced, if you know the Lord is your Savior, Lord willing, you've experienced the power of God in that way too, where although we have felt powerless at times, there are other times we feel invincible. Man, with God, I can do anything. I can accomplish anything. I mean, we know that God can get us anywhere. God could do anything He wants to. And so, I guess it's just encouraging to me to realize that the power of God is not something that we can talk about in third person or from a distance. We can talk about it personally because He is power and He resides here. And so those times we feel powerless, really what the problem is, is we're looking in the flesh, we're looking in the mirror, rather than looking into God's Word. And all of us have been there, I'm not trying to make anybody feel guilty, but that's just the reality that God has given to me, and really from His Word. And so we'll look at that this morning. Look at Matthew chapter 28. We all know this text, and maybe you're thinking this morning, I figured, you know, this missionary, all missionaries go to Matthew 28. Well, I'm not going to preach on missions this morning out of this text. Preach on the power of God. Look what it says in Matthew 28, verse 16 through 20. Matthew chapter 28, verse 16 through 20. I'm going to do my best to teach and not preach. I'm a preacher. It's just sometimes, so if I get too excited, then you'll just have to forgive me. But Matthew chapter 28, verse number 16, the Bible says, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, Some power. Is that what it says? I'm making sure you're awake this morning. Yes, I have the same Bible you do. What does it say? All. Do you know what all means? All. Do you know what all means in the Greek? All. I'm teasing. All is every... I mean, all power means All power. Well, how much is all? I mean, if there is power out there, it's God's. He didn't say some. He didn't say a little bit. He didn't say a portioned amount. He said, all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Because of that, we have the therefore. Go ye therefore. Because He has all power, we can go. We can live. We can live in this world where we feel powerless. We can do what God wants us to do. because of His power, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for this Sunday school class. Lord, I do pray that you'd help me. Help me to be concise in my thoughts and my speech. Lord, I pray that you'd just encourage us. Lord, as Pastor and I were praying just a little bit ago, Lord, I desperately need you. You know, I've been discouraged this year, I've had difficulties, and I'm sure everyone that's in this auditorium has had those same moments. There's times we feel powerless. Lord, help us to realize, Lord, how truly empowered we are. When we feel weak, that we can't do it, Lord, help us to get plugged in. God, I just pray that you'd help us to realize that through you, we can do impossible things. And you've chosen to let us in on it. God, I thank you for it. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. You know, I use the illustration of a lot of military illustrations because I work in the military, but I also use some sports things. And sometimes if you like and I'm not a big sports guy, everybody asked me if I played football, but I was built like a beanpole in high school. So I didn't play football in high school. Wasn't until I got married that I became full figured. So Some of the military guys will tell me, well, Captain Lance, you're looking kind of fluffy. So I don't know what that means, but I don't think they're talking about my beard. They're talking about, you know, because all those guys, they're all working out and they're all young. You know, they're all in their 20s and big, strong soldiers and things. But I like talking about football. I like talking about sports with them. They talk about that stuff. You know, it only takes one player to get the ball to get a touchdown. I don't know how much you all know about football, but I think everybody probably understands the basics. here's the reality that the whole team wins and it does really take a whole team to get that one guy across into the end zone. I think we all know that. And so, maybe you're thinking, well, there's no way I can carry that spiritual football to get that touchdown. There's no way I can score. I just can't do that. But you can be a part of a team, and if you can get one person in your church across that spiritual end zone, you can make a touchdown for the Lord, and you can make a difference, and your team can, our team will win. If you've read the Bible, we're going to win It might look like we're getting pounded, we might look like we're going to lose, but God has given us all power. And we've read the Bible, hopefully you've read the Bible, and you know that the end turns out well. Sometimes we look on what's going around in this world today and we get so overcome by the things that are here in this world that we, I do, I get, maybe y'all are more spiritual than me, but I get depressed. I get down, I get frustrated. I get, Pastor and I were talking about that yesterday. We, you know, if we really trusted God, would we have any anxiety? If we really trusted God, would we have any stress? If we were really trusting in His power, in His ability, would we have any worries? we really wouldn't. We'd say, Lord, just help me to keep going. Lord, help me to be faithful. Help me to do what I can do. Help me to be that player, if you go back to the sports analogy, that player on the team that helps somebody get across the end zone. You know, if we can get one person across there, and what I'm talking about is salvation, reaching someone for Christ, or making a difference for the Lord, or doing something amazing for the Lord. Really, that's what it's all about. That's why the Lord left us here. In other words, as soon as he got saved, Just extract this. We thank the Lord for His goodness and grace, and we realize in this passage and everything that we do, and I know it's a missions passage, and almost every missionary you've ever heard preaches from this. But again, I wanted to focus on that word power here, not necessarily our going. We need to go. I don't need to tell you that. I see the mission flags. I know your pastor well enough to know that missions is emphasized here. everything we do as a church and as a church body is because of the power that God has given us. But that's why I wanted to focus on that this morning, because we are living in a time where people feel drained. We feel where people have no power. They feel powerless. They feel hopeless. And church members, churches, pastors across the country, as we've traveled, are in the same boat. And maybe, I don't know, maybe you haven't been discouraged, but I sure know a lot of people that have been. But we have all power. So I'm going to give you a few things from this text. I think it'll be a help to you. It's certainly a help to me. But you know that again, back to that powerless state, it's miserable. My men, when they come to me and say, sir, I'm powerless, there's nothing I can do. It's a terrible place to be. But doubt is at the core of being powerless. And I want you to notice a couple things about this. First of all, there's power in, number one, the assembly. Well, y'all did well this morning because here you are for Sunday school. And I've talked to people all the time, especially, you know, in the military prison, we all know they're not all Baptist, they're not all saved, some of them haven't even been to church. And so they can say, well, I can believe in Jesus and not go to church. Well, technically, that's true. And technically, you can even be a Christian and not go to church. But the problem is, is you're not plugged in. The Lord is the one who ordained the local church, and there's power in assembling. There's power in coming together. Look what the Bible says in verse 16 and 17, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him. They had to come together, the eleven. They weren't one man out by themselves. I told you I tell lots of military analogies. And they tell you in Bible college never to use movies for illustrations. I understand that. But maybe some of us think ourselves as a spiritual Rambo. Do you remember that movie from back from the 80s? It's this one-man super soldier. He could just do anything. He could conquer anything. He could take care of the enemy by himself. He had no logistical support. He had no financial support, he had no ammo support, no commo support, no nothing, and here he is, super soldier, conquering the world. The reality is, is there is no such thing. Some of us feel like we're out there by ourselves, and maybe we are. There's power in the assembly. The eleven gathered themselves together, and notice what it said, as Jesus had appointed them. The Lord makes a point to tell you you need to come together. Well, this morning you're gathering as a local church here at Faith Baptist Tabernacle and coming together and you meet together and there's power there. When you're off by yourself and you're surrounded by 360, by the bombardments of the world and the fiery darts of the devil, you absolutely can feel destroyed, you can feel cast down, you can feel attacked. But when you come together, There's power there. Simple illustration. I've got two daughters. I used to tell them all the time, listen, don't go, especially when they went off to college. They went to college in Florida. I live in Washington state. So far, far away from dad. And so I told him when you go, don't go by yourself, take somebody with you. Go with a group. There's safety in the assembly. Well, listen, there's power in the assembly. And so if you're one of those church members, and by the way, the first thing that we do when we get attacked by the devil oftentimes is lay out a church. Well, I don't feel like going, or I don't feel like I can go, and I'm discouraged, I'm down. And you know what we do? We drop out, we fall out, we stop being as faithful as we ought to. But there's power in the assembly. When the Lord says, go together, there's power there, there's safety there, there's a group there. It's not just you, and you're surrounded by people with the same goals, and the same love for the Lord, and the same power that you are, that you have. When you come together, there's just a power in that assembly. The 11 did that. But I also want you to notice something else about this. There's power in the obedience. If you're not obeying God, if you're not doing what He wants you to do and being where He wants you to be, you're going to miss out completely. Look what it says in verse number 17. And when they saw Him, so we already established they had been obedient and they had been where the Lord appointed them, they gathered together. And then in verse 17, it says, and when they saw Him, they worshiped Him. Did you know there's power in worship? I don't know if you've ever thought about why that's the case, and I'm not talking... I understand, you know, worship is something that's probably misconstrued today more than anything else. Some churches think, well, now is the worship time, and some churches have a, you know, praise team, and some people have a song singing time, and depending on how churches do things, in our churches, you know, we get together and we sing songs, and we're worshiping the Lord in song, but listen, did you know there's just as much worship that goes on ought to during preaching? Because when you put yourself aside and you exalt Him and you're looking to Him, you're esteeming Him highly. You're looking up to the Lord. You're focusing on Him. You're thinking about how good God is. You're not thinking about yourself. You're not thinking about the things around you. There is worship and preaching. There's worship and prayer. As you set your own things aside, as you get down and you get on your knees and you talk about God, prayer is selfless. You can't be about yourself when you're praying. You're focusing on the Lord. And so there's power in worship. And all these disciples, these are the 11 we know, that they gathered themselves together, and there was power as they worshiped the Lord. But did you notice what it said? The verse didn't end right there. It said, and when they saw Him, they worshiped Him. But what? Some doubted. Now, I don't know, maybe you see it differently than I do. When I look at the apostles, you know, and sometimes we get this skewed idea that they're super soldiers. They're super Christians. Come on now, maybe I'm the only one that thinks that way sometimes. But they're not. They're normal people just like you and me. The Lord called out, by the way, you're called out as well, called out assembly. I mean, that's what we are. He's appointed us. He's called us. He's commissioned us. to come to be somewhere where we ought to be to focus on Him. And that's where the power is. Why? Because He wants to give us power through our obedience. But even in that scenario, and even in this scenario, maybe there's someone sitting here this morning that says, yeah, but you don't understand what I'm going through. Brother Lance, you don't know me. You don't understand. Because, and maybe in the back, maybe you wouldn't even admit it publicly, but in the back of your mind, you're like, yeah, but if God was really there, and if God really cared like he said he did, and if God was really all powerful, and if God was this, then he would have done this. Or he would have done that. Or why didn't he do this? Or why didn't he do that? And we all question and doubt God because of what He has or hasn't done in our lives and in the situations around us. You know, why would God allow the nation to go the way it's going? Why would God allow our state to go that? Why would God allow this person to die? Why would God allow this person to get sick? And we prayed fervently. I mean, why? And if God really is God, then you know what? In a group even like this, there are some that are doubting. I'd love to stand up here and tell you I've never doubted God. But I'd be a liar. And I think if we're all honest with ourselves, there have been times in our lives where we have doubted God. And you remember what I said at the beginning? There's no power in doubt. There's power in obedience, and there's power in the assembly, and there's power in worship. There's power in God. There's power in Christ. And when we turn to Him, when we're plugged in, have you ever tried to use a skill saw or some other kind of power tool when it's not plugged in? I don't know if you've ever tried that. I've never deliberately tried it, but there have been times where I've picked up something. My dad had an old, what they called a worm drive saw. It's like a circular saw, but it's for construction, and it has a longer body on it, and it's used for ripping long boards and different things like that. And I remember one time I was on a work site with my dad years ago, and I picked that thing up, and I went to try to cut something, pull the trigger, guess what? Nothing. I'm like, man, what in the world? And I looked around, and someone had unplugged my extension cord from way across the warehouse. And so I had to run over there and plug it in. You say, well, Brother Lance, well, yeah, I mean, duh. But listen, that's how obvious it is for us. Sometimes we get on our knees, and we come to Sunday school, and we come to church, and we know that we believe in God. We pick up the tool to say, hey, I can do this, and there's nothing. And I would just question you. Have you checked to make sure your extension cord's plugged in? Are you really plugged in? I mean, I'm talking spiritual application here. Are you really plugged in? Because the reality is some of us have gotten unplugged. Or if you didn't unplug it, we've let the world unplug it. Or we've let someone else unplug it. And we are sitting there saying, why can't I get this done? Some doubted. Listen, I really believe that until we get honest with God and we admit to Him that there's doubt in our heart and that we have not always trusted Him like we're supposed to, there's repentance that's necessary. We have to say, Lord, this is what I am, and Lord, I am sorry for what I am, and Lord, I'm coming to You knowing that I need You, and we need to come to the Lord that way. Listen, there's no power in doubt. Listen, especially when others are doubting, you know, and maybe you say, well, Brother Lance, I've never really had a faith issue and I'm trusting God, I'm doing really well, even in spite of all this COVID and all the things around us. Well, what about the brother or sister next to you? What about the brother or sister that's not here this morning? And sometimes it is our tendency to, now maybe you're nicer than some, but it's our tendency sometimes to attack those that aren't here. Well, bless God, where are they? They ought to be right there. But instead of doing that, why don't we love them? Why don't we go and encourage them? Again, power in the assembly. Why don't you gather yourselves to them and say, hey, listen, let me help pick you up. Let me encourage you. Let me help strengthen you. Because, listen, if you need help getting a job done and someone comes alongside you and becomes your spiritual paraclete, that's someone who comes up alongside someone and helps them do something. Be that person to that other church member. Listen, there's power there because it's God's power. And that's how God designed it to work. And we need to turn to the Lord and say, Lord, help us. There's power in helping. There's power in going. We know that. And in the scripture, we see that here again in our scripture in verse 18 and 19, as Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. We can't just purpose His power for whatever we want. God gave us the power for one thing, for going. Well, to go, we've got to continue to go here, we've got to continue to move, we have to be able to survive, so I understand that He gives us the power to... I told someone this morning, he said, how are you doing this morning? I said, well, the Lord let me wake up this morning, that's a good thing, it's a good start. And that's really all it is, that is power, but it's not for me just to get up to live my life, because remember Galatians 2.20, it's not my life. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not It's not about me. It's about Him. The Lord's given me power to live my life to affect someone else. Hopefully, we're investing in someone else. And maybe I'm not the one that's discouraged. Maybe someone else is the one that's discouraged, and it's our job to go. There's power in going. You say, Brother Lance, well, I don't really know what you mean. I mean, it seems like you're expending power when you go. It seems like you're expending power when you're ministering to someone. So let me give you a simple illustration. How many of you have seen someone else in need, or you saw maybe it's a financial need, maybe it was a personal need, maybe it was a family need, maybe it was a church need, maybe it was a pastor that had a need here at the church and needed something done, and you went, and you did it, and you ministered, and you helped somebody, Maybe you changed a tire for someone, or you helped brother so-and-so with his yard, or you helped sister so-and-so, or you brought a meal to someone. How many of you, it empowered you and you felt good about it? You're like, man, that felt great, that's awesome. Yeah. Did you know that there's power in going? The more we do, maybe the problem that we have is I was talking to someone about leading people to Christ, and I don't know how many of you have had the opportunity to do that or do it often, but to watch someone trust Christ is an empowering thing. because you can literally see, and I'm not trying to get spooky and weird on you, but you can watch God touch somebody and raise them up, and you can watch someone who is broken and destitute and hopeless and powerless, and you can see them get victory, and you can see them get power. I've watched it so many times, and seeing someone who is broken, I've watched God pick them up, raise them up and empower them, and now they're going on and they're doing well. It's empowering to go. There's power in going. Don't just throw an Andrew Jackson on the offering plate and say, well, I did my part in going, I'm supporting missions. No, no, no, no. It's us that needs to go. And there's power in doing that. If you feel weak, then that's the best time to go. It's an amazing thing to see what God can do. There's also power in discipleship. There's power in watching someone grow. There's power in investing in someone else. There's all these things that we can watch the Lord just do amazing things in someone's life. I was thinking about this text, and the apostles, and how many times that each one of them, if you have read, you know, context is important, and we look at the Scripture, and we see the lives of all the different apostles, and we realize that each one of them had their fortes, and each one of them had their weaknesses. We understand that. But we're all the same way. Every one of us have weaknesses, and we all have strengths. And by yourself, that might be a troubling thing. But when we look at how the Lord orchestrated the church and how He, again, the assembly, and the obedience, and the worship, and the going, and the discipleship, everything that we see in this text, when we come together, You know, I can think of times in the military, and my background's in law enforcement as well, and there were different people who had different strengths, and different skill sets, and different attributes about them. And so what they would do oftentimes is they would take one who had a strength here, but they were weak in this area, and they would take this guy over here, who they knew was strong, where that guy was weak, and maybe weak where he was strong, and you know what they would do? They would put them together. And although by themselves they could never get it done, when you put them together, they help each other, they build each other. Boy, that sounds like scripture, doesn't it? They build each other up. They edify, they strengthen, they add to. And when they come together, that's where the strength is. I really believe that there's too many people today, including missionaries, and oftentimes I'll just... I can't speak for your pastor, I can only assume, but I know that myself there have been times I felt alone. Man, I am out there, I haven't been able to be to church like I want to be because I was in the prison or I was doing ministry things, and I can't get with other pastors, and I can't get with other groups for fellowship and for preaching, and I needed preaching too. And there are times that I felt alone and weak, but when I would be able to go, like this two-minute warning, and you come together, and you're with other preachers, and you're with other pastors, and you're with other missionaries, and other Christians, and you gather together in church, and you come together, you feel the power of God, and you're like, man, this is great, and I thought I was losing, but man, here's a win, here's a win, here's a win, they made a touchdown, and they made a touchdown, we are making progress, we are getting somewhere. Meanwhile, you're over here in your corner because you weren't the one that was carrying the ball across the end zone. You're feeling down. I wonder which one of the apostles were doubting. You know, more than likely we're all thinking, at least I do, our mind goes to one guy in particular. Anybody want to say who it is? Doubting? Poor brother Thomas. You know, he just takes serious damage. Whenever I read, the Lord just convicted me about this, you know, not just now, but many, many times over the years. Whenever I read about Thomas, and I'm not a Bible corrector by any means, but I like to just plug my name in there. Because every time Thomas doubted, we would probably doubt too. Not heads up and down. You know, it's true. We like to come to church and pretend we're super spiritual. But the reality is, every one of us have doubted God. And Thomas is the one, I remember in, I think it's John chapter 11, you know, Jesus says, let's go into Bethany anyway. Daisarus had died, and the Lord, they want to kill you. And Thomas is like, let's just all go. We'll just all die. Some of us are that way with the Lord. Well, why not? Not getting anywhere anyway. And some of us just, we're just like Thomas. We doubt, but there's no power in doubt. There's power in realizing who God is. I'll use an illustration. A pastor told me this illustration many years ago. I can't remember. exactly all the details of the story, but it's been huge in my life as well as my wife. In fact, somewhere in my storage unit, again, we sold our house, put everything in storage, but somewhere in my storage unit, I still have this item, and I'll tell you about it here in just a minute. So there's a preacher who came to our church, preached a revival, and he told a story about an AMC rambler. Y'all know what those are, an older car they don't make anymore. It was a pretty good-sized engine. It was a V8 engine, but it was not known for being stylish, necessarily. But anyway, his grandfather had purchased the car for his wife. And his wife was a infamously bad driver. And so in best interest of protecting his wife, he had taken certain measures with the car to make sure she didn't kill herself or kill someone else. So over the years, but this story had kind of gone by the wayside and nobody really knew about it and known what he had done. And so make a long story short, they had started I can't remember if she had passed away or what, but nobody wanted this car. Nobody wanted the car, because it was gutless. I mean, this car wouldn't even, I mean, it would run, but it just, you know, you floor it and it's... In fact, you know, she was known for not going over about 45, 50 miles an hour, and so nobody wanted this car, because it was a piece of junk that was just powerless. So finally this pastor friend of mine said, well, dad, I'll take the car. He says, all right. And so he took the car and he says, I was tinkering, he says, I'm not a mechanic, but I was tinkering around saying maybe a spark plug's fouled. You know, maybe there's something wrong with it. He goes, I started tinkering with the car and I couldn't find anything really wrong and everything looked good. He says, and I got up underneath the dash, maybe a, you know, maybe a rodent got in there and chewed on some wires or something. He says, I was just kind of checking the car out. He says, and I was underneath, had my head up underneath the dashboard, you know, with my feet up on the chair, He says, and I look over to my left, and here's the accelerator pedal, and underneath the accelerator pedal, there is this block. He says, and I looked at it, and I tried to move it, and it was kind of fixed. He says, and I pulled, he goes, but it looked like it was made out of wood. Well, wood things don't usually go in cars. They're either plastic or metal. And he says, so I started messing with it. He goes, I pulled it off. It was an old wooden spool. He says, and it had been, you know, it had gotten black over the years and gotten all dirty and stuff, but his grandfather had taken that thing and put the, you know the old term, pegged. You know, well, you put the gas pedal down to the peg, you've got it floored. There's a little metal peg that sticks up that hits that gas pedal to keep it from going, you know, through the floor. Well, he had taken that spool and put it on there. So when his wife floored it, it wasn't going all the way down. That's why the car was gutless. He says, I took that thing. He goes, I called my dad. I'm like, Dad, you're not going to believe this. Grandpa must have put a spool under there to keep grandma from peeling out. He wanted to be a hot rod granny. So he put this in there to control her. He's like, uh, did it look like it belonged there? He goes, well, no. He goes, I'd put it back. Maybe the manufacturer put it there, you know, maybe you're messing with something you shouldn't mess with. He says, no, I took it out because the second I took it out, he says, I got in that thing, it cranked like it always does. He says, but I put the pedal down. He says, that thing burnt rubber. It just peeled out. He says, man, I've never, I didn't know grandma's car had it in it. He says, I had fun. Boy, news spread like wildfire through his family. He says, all of a sudden, my brothers were calling me, hey, I want that car. He's like, no, my car. You didn't want it. It's mine. See, brother Lance, what's the, what's the application of the story? That pastor handed out wooden spools to everybody in the auditorium and said, I want, I'm thinking about this because, you know, God said all power, is given unto me, so that we can go, we can live our lives, we can live our lives for Him. We can allow Christ to live through us. We can do impossible things, not difficult things. God can do impossible things. We have all power available to us. Not some, not limited. But the problem is, most of us have a wooden spool underneath our gas pedal. We come to church, and man, preacher, I've got it floored. I've got it floored, but... Immediately, God started telling me what some of those wooden spools were in my life. Yeah. How about this? Lance, how about this? You know, when I told you to go and you didn't? You know the times I told you to assemble and you didn't? The times I told you to encourage someone else and you didn't? There's power in going, there's power in assembling, there's power in worshiping, and we let those things go. Well, you may as well be taking some carnal spool in your life and putting it underneath the access we have to His power. I don't know what's holding us back as churches and as Christians today, but when God said all power, He meant all power. God can do anything. And we've watched the world struggle, especially this last year and a half, politically, medically, socially. And I tell you what's happened. I just believe that most of us have taken a whole bunch of, probably more than one, and we've started stacking up these wooden spools underneath that gas pedal. And God said, go. And you're like, well, God, I am going. And we've got it floored, but we're going like 20. I just believe the Lord wants to remove whatever those things that are hindering God's power in your life and hindering your faith and hindering your going. I think He wants us to go full throttle. I think He wants to sound the battle cry and say, charge. I think He wants us to stand fast. I think there are things He wants us to fight for. I'm thinking of Nehemiah 4 where Nehemiah told him, with one hand build the wall and with one hand hold the sword and build the wall and be ready to fight. You've got something to fight for. You've got something to go for. God has given us the power to keep going. Meanwhile, most of us are like Elisha under the juniper tree. So I wish the Lord would just come back because I'm ready to go. And some of us have quit. You might be here this morning, but remember they were there too, but some doubted. I don't know where you are this morning, but the power of God is amazing. I am no expert on it. I've seen God do amazing things, but how many times have I cut God short? Many. Why don't we ask the Lord for his power this morning? Ask God to give us something to plug us in this morning, amen? And to encourage us, we need that. Heavenly Father, thank you for this Sunday school time. I pray that you'll help us. Lord, so many times I know that I have run out of gas. Lord, when you want us to keep going, Lord, we find ourselves powerless. We need you desperately today in this world. Lord, I know this church needs you, this pastor needs you, I certainly need you. Lord, I pray that you'll fill us, that you'll strengthen us, that you'll help us today as we gather to worship you. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.